Connected Aircraft Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Global Industry Analysis: By Connectivity (Inflight Connectivity, Air-to-air Connectivity, Air-to-ground Connectivity), By Application (Commercial Aircraft, Military Aircraft), By Frequency Band (Ka-Band, Ku-Band, L-Band), and Region

Connected Aircraft Market size was valued at US$ 8,643.8 million in 2023 and is poised to grow at an 12.1% CAGR from 2024 to 2030. The Connected Aircraft (CA) concept outlines a framework for the use of performance-based links to accommodate the expected growth in demand for information exchange between aircraft and relevant aviation stakeholders. The increase in the number of global air passenger traffic has encouraged fleet expansion of airlines, which in turn has driven the delivery of commercial aircraft by OEMs. Moreover, the rising passenger traffic has also enhanced the frequency of aviation operations, and the growth in research and development of advanced connected aircraft solutions by various major market players are the major factors that will lead to growth in the market during the coming years.

Throughout 2022, global air passenger traffic gained momentum and recovered substantially as travel restrictions were taken down and passengers expressed a very strong willingness to travel. According to the data presented by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in 2022, air passenger traffic gained momentum globally. It recovered substantially from 41.7% of 2019 revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) in 2021 to 68.5% in 2022. Moreover, domestic RPKs recovered to 79.6% of pre-pandemic passenger traffic in 2022 and grew 10.9% year-on-year from 2021 levels. International RPKs recovered to 62.2% of 2019 traffic and grew 152.7% YoY from 2021 levels.

Furthermore, an increase in the number of aircraft deliveries worldwide in recent years gave a major boost to the development of advanced connected aircraft systems for commercial aviation. However, cyber-attacks can pose a major threat to the market as they can lead to a potential number of flight delays along with data theft and massive flight cancellations. For instance, in February 2022, British Airways mentioned about IT technical issues which resulted in many flight cancellations and delays. Thus, simple internal software issues can also cause severe problems. Moreover, increased adoption of connected technologies for data transmission, increasing demand for military services and commercial industries, and a shift from seat-centric entertainment systems to portable entertainment systems are a few emerging trends having a direct impact on the dynamics of the  market.

Connected Aircraft Market Key Developments

• In May 2023, Inmarsat announced its market-leading Jet ConneX (JX) inflight broadband solution with a new set of service plans that are introduced to redefine the gold standard connectivity in the business aviation market.
• In February 2022, Aegean Airlines, which is based out of Greece, announced the introduction of a new high-speed inflight broadband service powered by the European Aviation Network (EAN) and provided by Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom.